American Justice

marjorie says...

On my final day in Texas this past Friday, this picture on the front page of the Dallas Morning News caught my eye. It shows Charles Allen Chatman right after he was exonerated in a Dallas courtroom for a rape charge that put him in prison 27 years ago. He was 20 at the time of his conviction, and now, at 47 years old, he's being set free to find his way in the world. The Dallas Morning News story tells us that he might have a learning disability because he doesn't know how to use a cell phone or computer. Well, I won't dispute that he has a learning disability, but it could be he doesn't know how to use those two items because they simply didn't exist when he entered prison in 1980. Apparently, Dallas County took a pretty rigorous approach to incarcerating people in the 1980's. And now there are some good legal eagles working to free men based on DNA evidence.

What do we owe Mr. Chatman?

Good question.

I'm sure you know what I think. We can't pay the debt we owe him, for being a society that locks people up the way we do. Would Mr. Chatman have been locked up had he been rich? No. I have good African-American friends who say that even if they really think O.J. did it, they're still glad he got off...because it showed them it was about money and not race. That it was all about the money. You can imagine the discussion that follows that assertion. The counterpoint is always that race correlates with money in this country. And its pretty clear to me that justice as defined by who is in prison is also correlated with money. So...it is about race. No, wait...let's just disagree and say that it is actually about race, period. Nonetheless, the point is a good one.

I recently had a conversation about money and justice with a friend who is studying law. He just spent a semester working at the public defenders office and was telling me a little about his work. I wanted to know how he felt about working hard to get someone off who he might suspect did commit the crime. My larger curiosity was about whether or not this was a big issue for those studying law. He pointed out to me that our legal system is founded on the notion of innocence, and that a person shouldn't have to prove they are innocent. Society should have to prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that a person is guilty. So in this sense, a person's defense should be of primary importance. And defense attorneys should do everything they possibly can to counter any evidence or charges of guilt, regardless of what they think about the person they are defending. Theoretically, if it isn't absolutely clear then a person should be set free. Theoretically, we have great values in this way. And, he told me, given the nature of who their clientele are, one of the public defenders described his job as doing god's work. It sounds like it to me. Justice is supposed to exist outside of the money. Or so they told me in elementary school.

DIY, or heck, just be homeless

marjorie says...

I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness with at best a wary hope that it wouldn’t be completely reactionary about homeless people. I was prepared to be highly critical of the message, and indeed in some respects I am.

The subject of the movie, Chris Gardner, struggles against tremendous odds to become a successful businessman, odds that at one point force him into homelessness. He’s an intelligent and energetic person who has high aspirations to make it rich as an entrepreneur. In the pursuit of that, he invests all his money into medical equipment that in fact is not something he can sell easily. His dogged pursuit to sell his goods rather than go punch a clock somewhere places enormous strain on his hard working wife, eventually leading to the end of their marriage. Ultimately he runs out of money and gets evicted from his apartment. Rather than go look for a job, he enters into an unpaid stockbroker internship on the gamble that he will be the one selected to fill a very lucrative job at the end, which he was. But it caused him to live a precarious life with his son, barely able to thread the financial pieces together at times, ultimately having to live in a homeless shelter.

This is a movie about the entrepreneurial spirit. It is not a movie about homelessness. It’s a movie about a certain type of person with a certain type of ability. It is not about the ability of all people. Chris Gardner had assets and skills that he could rely on ultimately, which is why he would never have been homeless for long. Likewise, this is what makes me middle class and not living on the edge. Yes, I might one day be out of a job with no money, but I have a marketable set of attributes (not to mention a big family) on which I can rely. Many people do not.

So why is it that we see these screenings for homeless people here and there, as if they need to see it? As if all homeless people are like Chris Gardner. They are not. There are some like Chris Gardner. And then there are the chronically homeless…those who will never, ever by like Chris Gardner. It's not the homeless that need to see this movie. The ones who need to see it are the rest of us, who either don't see or forget about homelessness or go around disparaging homeless people.

Instead of showing it to organized groups of homeless people in order to inspire “hope,” it should be shown to the elite sectors in this country to illustrate the stress, anxiety, and inhumanity of poverty.

I was surprised at how well this movie got across that on edge feeling of not knowing what you’re going to do next. The desperation. Gardner's wife wasn't just a selfish woman who won't stand by her man. She is a desperate woman living on the financial edge. It comes across in the movie incredibly well. And the scenes showing the inhumanity of many homeless shelters... the forced religious dogma pushed down these people’s throats just so they can get a bed and meal, the lights out as if they are in jail, the having to leave and then line back up every night and fight for their bed…are spot on.

This is what I liked about this movie. It really stressed me out...I could feel what it was like to be on the edge, to experience how the domino effect of financial hard knocks eventually lead to homelessness. It’s something rarely, if ever shown in American movies. This is what we need to see more of, not simply one more pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps piece of dogma. Homelessness is a real problem for us, and all of us are responsible for fixing it.

New Orleans Violence is a Post-Katrina Endemic Problem

marjorie says...

Many of you may have read the news lately about the rash of murders in New Orleans. It has become so bad that city leaders have proposed a curfew.

Reflecting back on the Katrina catastrophe, I remember the incredible outrage and upset so many of us felt. That disaster reflected back to all of us in horrific clarity the incredible problems we have in our society dealing with structural poverty. I call it structural because that is what it is: a condition present due to the economic and political structure that orders our society. A capitalist economy demands that poor people exist. And our political system mitigates this reality enough through social programs to allow for the survival of capitalism. I believe one of the reasons so many people don't want to confront the problem of racism is that to do so clearly shows this structural problem with capitalism, because there is a clear correlation between poverty (class) and race. To truly change that requires fundamental change. Hard fundamental change.

During the Katrina weeks, there was an enormous outpouring of grief, rage, confusion, not to mention charity and support to those in need, from across the United States. And when the crisis lessened there were a lot of calls to not forget and to not abandon the poor people of New Orleans to an uncertain future, who were overwhelmingly African American. But, really, that is what happened. The media dropped it. And the planners, developers, and political bureaucrats have swooped in to change the face of the city. Some of that might be good, but plenty of it is resulting in displacement. Violence is endemic because the plight of the poor in that city has remained, their already tenuous hold on stability incredibly strained by an unresponsive monolithic government and a profit driven land development system.

The violence is so bad that it is now spilling over into the lives of those who are normally more insulated from it...that may be one reason we are all finally hearing about it. I'd like to share an email I received from a friend and co-worker, Rosina Roibal, who lived in New Orleans for five years. In her email, Rosina talks about her friend who was shot and killed last week...mentioned in this newspaper article. I hope it will personalize this issue for more m-pyre readers, and I hope that we all can take some time to communicate with our congresspeople about this issue...because its an issue that belongs to all of us. There are other ways to help as well...for one, doing fundraisers in your homes to send money to community organizing groups working on the ground in New Orleans.

But in the bigger scheme of things, we all need to really examine how our system works. The plight in New Orleans is extraordinary in some ways, but there are struggling people throughout this country, many of them homeless. That isn't because they're lazy or don't want to help themselves. Its because they live in an economic system that requires them to exist. The only solution is a social response, which means us.

Dear Friends/family,

If you don't know, I went to college in New Orleans, lived there for 5 years.

I feel that you should know what New Orleans is like, and the devastation that has resulted due to the government’s lack of action to help it. Yesterday, my friend Teresa (who lives there now) called me to say that our friend Paul and Helen were shot in their home, and Helen died. There were 6 shootings in the same day around New Orleans. Paul was the leader of our band the “Troublemakers.” They have both been extremely active in making New Orleans a better place for poor people, like Food not Bombs (bringing free food to the community), a medical clinic for poor people, animal rights work. They were anarchist, atheist, and vegan with a 2 year old daughter and a pet pig named Rosie. If you had a chance to meet them, they were the happiest most energetic fun people I’ve ever met. Helen made films. There is a protest tomorrow to end the violence.

Just one week before, I was in New Orleans staying with my friends Ben, Teresa, and Chester. One day we heard 8 gun shots two doors down. A 17 year old boy was shot and died. His aunt was shot in the head 3 weeks before. They were into crack.

There is a film by Spike Lee, called “When the Levees Broke.” You should see it when it comes out on dvd, it was on HBO, and is great. However, most people don’t realize the long lasting problems that the people of New Orleans are facing. I don’t know if people like you and me can help change things in New Orleans. Poor people in New Orleans don’t have homes, they are not being given rights, they are not allowed to move back into their past homes, which are now being turned into condominiums for the rich. They’ve lost their families and friends and jobs and belongings. They’re depressed. They get into drugs to help the pain. Crack is all they can afford. Then they crack. They shoot someone for just a little money, for something to eat or just to buy some more crack. My friends living there say it’s so bad, they have to leave, even the ones who’ve lived there their entire lives. Teachers are stuck with huge class sizes, no supplies. The poverty and violence is overwhelming. We could go on and on about the horrible conditions and issues in New Orleans, but the bottom line is that our government doesn’t care about the poor people of New Orleans or the poor people of our country or the world for that matter.

George, how many more of my friends have to be shot? How many more people in New Orleans have to live without homes or help? How many more times will you allow levees to break? How many more thousands of people and animals will you leave stuck in a disaster? George, I don’t trust you, and I hate you and your posse.

I don't know what to do and feel scared and helpless. New Orleans was already behind in terms of social justice and being progressive. I give my friends in New Orleans all of my power and know you will fight till the death.

Rosina Roibal

More Orwellian than Orwell

Mikaela asks:
What the **^%$%& is this?

Courtesy Democracy Now:

U.S. Stops Describing Americans as "Hungry"
In news from Washington, the Bush administration has stopped using the words "hunger" or "hungry" when describing the millions of Americans who can't afford to eat. Instead of suffering from hunger, the Agriculture Department now says these people are experiencing "very low food security." The USDA estimates that 12 percent of Americans or 35 million people could not put food on the table at least part of last year.